September S, 1906 



H ORTICU LTU RE 



277 



THE CONVENTION: FROM THE 

 SEEDMAN'S STANDPOINT. 



iKi'iUl by George C. Watsou Before llie 



Florists' L'liib of Phila(l«Ii)liia, 



September 4th, 190G.) 



Many a man has dug a cavity for the 

 other fellow and fallen into the hole 

 himself. Your committee on subjects 

 last month assigned one to a seedsman 

 whose duty it would be to report on 

 the convention. Unfortunately lor the 

 committee there were no Philadelphia 

 seedsmen at the convention big enough 

 for this job. Mr. J. Otto Thilow of 

 Dreer's had designed to go, and had 

 promised to make an address, 'jut his 

 plans had to be changed at the last 

 minute. So you see the cavity! 

 Somebody had to flU it! The rest of 

 the committee insisted on my jumping 

 in, and that must be my excuse for at- 

 tempting — even in a remote way — to 

 fill up this hole. I approach the sub- 

 ject with a meekness exceeding the 

 meekness of Moses and am very sorry 

 we do not have the unhackneyed and 

 original views of Mr. Thilow instead 

 of the overworked and well known no- 

 tions of yours truly. 



To my mind the first and most im- 

 portant feature of a convention to a 

 seedsman is the opportunity it affords 

 him of meeting his customers. It 

 must be remembered that the seedsman 

 —and in using that term I mean it in 

 the broadest sense — is the very oppo- 

 site of a specialist. To be a seedsman 

 in the proper sense, one must have a 

 working knowledge of Horticulture, 

 Floriculture, Agi-iculture and Arbori- 

 culture; because the seedsman is an 

 auxiliary to all these different 

 branches of the art of Gardening. 

 You will observe that I dignify the art 

 of Gardening by embracing under it 

 the culinary, the ornamental, the 

 farm, and the forest. Loudon did so, 

 and no more illustrious example could 

 be followed. To be a gardener in the 

 true sense of that term one must have 

 a working knowledge of all the.se four 

 great sub-divisions of the art and as 

 the seedsman is the auxiliary and 

 helper in the same field it follow.-i that 

 he also must be equally well posted so 

 as to fulfill his proper functions with 

 ease and dexterity. Therefore the 

 seedsman, as I said before, is the very 

 opposite of a specialist. He is all em- 

 bracing. But that is the strongest rea- 

 son why he should be present at a 

 convention of specialists like that of 

 the Society of American Florists. 

 There he comes in personal contact 

 with his customers gaixiing valuable 

 knowledge from their experience with 

 various specialties in which he nas a 

 direct pecuniary interest. He i;^ able 

 also to get a line on what is lacking 

 and can lay his plans for future 

 progress thus becoming not only an 

 liuxiliary but a pioneer in the onward 

 march of the art of Gardening. 1 have 

 made it a point to attend as mn;iy of 

 these conventions as I could iluring 

 the past twenty years and I have never 

 regretted having done so. lu fact, I 

 consider it impossible to liecome 



WE wish to announce that we have established a 

 department for securing positions for such that 

 require them. Our services are absolutely free. 

 We also wish to establish a complete up to date directory 

 of those who are in employment. In order to accomplish 

 this successfully, we require the assistance of every 

 reader of this paper. If you will kindly send us your 

 name linked with that of your employer, also of those 

 whom you know, we would consider it a great favor. 



Please 

 Address 



W. W. RAWSON & Co., 5 Union St., BOSTON, MASS. 



thoroughly posted in the profession 

 of a seedsman without taking in as 

 many as possible of these and other 

 conventions bearing on any phase or 

 branch of the art of Gardening. 



The second and less important phase 

 of this subject from the seedsman's 

 standpcint is the actual and immediate 

 business that can be transacted. 

 From my own experience and from 

 what I have heard of that of others, 

 the immediate business returns are 

 not adequate in proportion to the ex- 

 pense and moreover unless a good ex- 

 hibit is put up they will be almost nil. 

 If one goes to a convention for purely 

 business reasons rather than for the 

 purpose of keeping posted a good ex- 

 hibit is indispensable. Quite a number 

 of our most wide awake houses keep 

 regularly milking such displays, year 

 in and year out. and they must find it 

 pays them either directly or indirectly, 

 else they would not keep it up. At the 

 same time there can be no gainsaying 

 the fact that a great many of our 

 prominent seed-houses do uot attend, 

 whether it be indifference, lack of time, 

 or what, I do not know; but I feel sure 

 many of them need stirring up on this 

 very" subject. I can remember well 

 how surprised I was in Buffalo in 1901 

 when not a single one of the local 

 seedsmen took advantage of the grand 

 chance of making an exhibit at the 

 minimum cost. I was ashamed of 

 them. And this apathy prevails to- 

 day. The seed trade wants shaking 

 up ou this point. Imagine what a 

 grand show Burpee could make wilh 

 sweet peas for instance, or Maule with 

 Dahlias or Thorburn or Henderson 

 with a general collection of their 

 specialties. I hope to see full ad- 

 vantage taken by such firms in the 

 exhibition of 1907. 



In conclusion I may say that for ex- 

 tent, excellence, and variety the Day- 

 ton Exhibition compared very favor- 

 ably with those of recent years. There 

 was at least one local seedsman who 

 put up an exhibit and the Livingston 

 Seed Companv of the neighboring city 

 of Columbus had a very interesting 

 displav of Tomatoes— the subject that 

 has rnade the name of Livingston 

 famous— besides some good new hy- 

 brids of Begonia semperflorens. 



NEWS NOTES. 



The carnival at Lyndonville, N. Y., 

 August 2,S, was so successful in the 

 display of flowers and attendance that 

 it may become an annual feature. 



The improvements made during the 

 .summer by H. W. Field of Northamp- 

 ton. Mass., in his store on Main street, 

 are pronounced very effective and con- 

 venient. 



E. F. Dwyer & Son of Lynn, .Mass., 

 have been awarded a first-class certi- 

 ficate by the .Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society for Clematis herachlei- 

 folia. 



While working on the n.w green- 

 house of Sidney Littlefield at North 

 Abington, Mass.. Wiu. Brawn lost his 

 balance and in his fall of 15 feet was 

 bruised and badly shaken up. 



During a recent heavy shower light- 

 ning struck one end of the new green- 

 house recently added to the plant of 

 the Cottage Gardens Co.. Queens, N. Y., 

 twisting the iron work and break- 

 ing some glass. 



At the Nashua. New Hampshire, 

 State Fair, this week, there is a very 

 fine showing of plants and flowers, 

 among the most successful exhibitors 

 being August Gaedeke, of Nashua, and 

 C. S. Finacom of Dracut, Mass. 



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WANTS, FOR SALE, ETC. 



Advertisements in this column one 

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A FADELESS LABEL. 



For a plant label nothing is more 

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 The letters become jet black instantly 

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